Positive Space
We all know what happened to Mideo Cruz’ unfortunate art exhibit at the CCP. We all saw how he dared display something no one else before him already has, drawing the ire of a lot of people in the process. We learned how these people, supposedly devout Catholics bent on protecting the sanctity of their religion, reacted to the artworks. How some of them cursed the artist nonstop on the Internet, hoping that he would end up in hell because of what he did. How some vandalized the exhibit in question, perhaps seeing themselves as deliverers of poetic justice. How some even went so far as to send him death threats.
Don’t get me wrong—I am not defending Cruz’s taste in art. As with many other Catholics, I was left uncomfortable on a certain level after seeing religious images manipulated the way he did. However, I tried to avoid clouding my reasoning with religious judgment. Perhaps there’s something he’s trying to proclaim to all of us through art, I thought. After all, artists are communicators too, so there must be a deeper motive behind the artworks, not just cheap religious desecration. The way I saw it, Cruz was just trying to hammer home a point. He wasn’t out to just blatantly offend Christianity.
What’s the big issue here, then? Let me digress just for a little bit.
Back in the days of Spanish colonial rule here in the country, the Catholic Church was one of the most influential bodies—so much so that almost every barangay had its own Church, next to a government office. The Church had a say in almost all state matters, which didn’t always lead to desirable results. The nation has since decided to take a firmer stand, and has constitutionally guaranteed the separation of Church matters from state matters.
However, it seems that the excessive influence of the Church has slowly crept back into the collective mindset of Filipino Catholics, who make up around 80% of the Filipino population; the Church has begun to impose its will on its constituents.
We see it all around us, from questionable complaints against seemingly innocent burger advertisements to the gigantic tarpaulins dedicated to stopping the RH bill. Sometimes, prayers are even said towards the end of Mass, asking that the people behind the bill would have their eyes opened to the ‘murderous’ nature that the proposed law possesses.
Normally, I wouldn’t be against prayers—for example, if they were meant to ask for the safety of our OFWs abroad. But this time it’s different: it’s mass indoctrination, and it’s getting in the way of a freethinking mindset, one that is not confined by the limitations of religious sensibilities.
Mideo Cruz’s art, like the Bible, is not supposed to be understood literally. It’s supposed to be interpreted, just like how Van Gogh’s paintings are seen as more than just a distorted view of reality. People nowadays need to think more and dig deeper, so that they wouldn’t be afraid to understand the things that are hard to understand with a clouded mind.
